Trust Me, Trust Me Not (Gavert City Book 3)

by Elodie Nowodazkij

  “Just a little bit of Benadryl...or maybe a lot—it will get him quiet pretty fast.” He turns back to me, takes a step toward me, another one, and then tilts my head toward him. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle. I’m sorry but I need you for him to pay.”

  “Would she want you to do that?” I whisper and he freezes.

  He squints as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “What did you say?” His voice rises with each word.

  “Your love. Your girlfriend. Would she want you to throw everything away? Would she want you to kill us?”

  He shakes his head and for a split second, I can breathe more easily but the pressure on my chest intensifies again when he smiles the same way Abram used to smile before finding new ways to hurt me. “Hunter’s not going to die. Hunter is going to live with the knowledge that he could have saved you. That he’s responsible for your death.” He touches my hair and leans forward. His breath smells like the mint he took not so long ago—even though it feels like forever. “He’s not going to be able to move forward. It’s going to break him.” His lips touch my forehead and I shiver. “Thank you for helping me break him.”

  CHAPTER 35 – HUNTER

  Branson. How did I not see it? He never mentioned his life back in Massachusetts, except to talk about his school and his grades and some girls he dated. But he never said anything about going to rehab, or about Jane Doe, or about his struggles.

  A voice cuts through the fog in my mind. Lacey. My throat is parched. I can’t speak. My heart and head pound. I wince. He’s got Lacey. He’s got her. I want to get up. I need to get to her. But I can’t move. Everything hurts but adrenaline pushes me forward. I struggle to get to my feet, and stumble back. Branson’s pushing a syringe into my skin, in the muscle in my arm. And the room turns and turns and turns, and then nothing.

  CHAPTER 36 - LACEY

  Branson unties my hands and pulls me up. His gun is on my back. If I make the wrong move, will he press? Dread mixes with determination. I need to do something. Anything. Once he’s taken me out of here, wherever here is...I’m not sure of where else he’ll take me.

  “Ouch!” I cry out and stumble down. “My ankle. I hurt it. The other day. And it’s still painful. I think I twisted it.” I crawl forward as I speak, closer to Hunter.

  “I remember Hunter telling me about it,” he says, like we’re back on campus talking about our schoolwork and his latest Formula One race, as if he forgot that he’s currently threatening us, threatening to kill me. He seems distracted. I don’t have time for much. It’s now or never.

  I bend my legs and then propel them forward as strongly as I can, hitting him in the stomach and destabilizing him.

  “What the fuck?” he yells as he falls down and hits his head. “You bitch,” he snarls and massages his head—he’s looking for his gun. It’s too far for me to get. I crawl closer to Hunter and my fingers fumble with his ties, loosening them up as quickly as I can. And then I move away as if I’m going for the door.

  It’s too far. But I still try. I’m more than two feet away from the door.

  “If you take one more step, I’ll shoot you and Hunter right now.”

  I freeze.

  But inside, I give myself a high five. I knew getting to the door would be too hard, but maybe, just maybe if Hunter wakes up before he comes back, he’ll be able to save himself.

  Maybe he’ll be able to save me.

  He pulls my hair until his mouth is right next to my ear. A wave of terror washes the adrenaline away. “You do that one more time, and I’ll kill him slowly. You’re going to die anyways. But so far my plan is for him to survive. To survive and know you’re dead. And that it’s his fault.” His lips touch my neck only for a second but that second feels like an eternity and my skin crawls. “We’re about to go out...you might not recognize the place but you know it. You have good memories in this place. You’re about to make one more.” He puts his arm around my neck, forcing me to move forward with him. He opens the door. There’s a short hallway with pictures framed. “Come and be part of the new Sunshine Cove Community.” Pictures of families smiling. Of an outdoor pool. Sunshine Cove Community.

  No.

  No, no, no.

  He opens the next door and we stand in a middle of a community in construction. “No, please no.” My voice breaks. And panic fills my heart, unable to look away, unable to stop my mind from galloping into despair.

  And he raises an eyebrow. “You know where we are. Sunshine Cove Community is a much better name than Former Compound. The developers got the property dirt cheap only a few months after your stepdaddy decided to set this place on fire.”

  He shoves me hard, propelling me forward. “There are a lot of almost-finished houses further up. That’s where we’re going.” He opens the car door, ties my hands together, and pulls me inside of his truck. His gun stays on me as he climbs over me and slides into the driver seat. “It’s where the house of your mom and stepdad used to be. It looks a bit different but I’m sure it’s nice to be reacquainted.”

  Bile shoots up my throat, but I can’t help but stare outside the window.

  The cabins are replaced with modern homes with porches—some finished, some unfinished. Streets have sidewalks. And lights. It seems they’re building a playground and maybe a pool. We drive a bit further up. Less houses are finished except a dead-end with four houses. “It used to be your house—or rather, your mom’s house. I heard they kept you in one of those cabins without electricity and water.”

  “I had water,” I mutter almost automatically and then want to bite my tongue when he laughs. His laugh almost sounds carefree.

  “That’s too much. I can’t believe you lived like that...”

  “Sometimes I feel like it’s an addiction too. Having someone deciding for you. Having someone making you feel like you’re part of something special. Ma thought it’d be an adventure. And then she couldn’t quit even if she wanted to. Isn’t it like that for you?”

  He accelerates and stops so abruptly I slide and hit my head on the console. “Don’t talk about what you don’t know. I’m not like those people on TV, those junkies who’d do anything for their fix...I don’t use. I still drink when I need to be numb.”

  I shake my head. “What about...your...your girlfriend?”

  “She was the kind of girl that made your head turn.” His voice is soft but then he twists my hand until I shriek and his smile turns somber. “She was so strong until she wasn’t. She got injured in a car crash and the doctor put her on pain medicine. She got hooked, dropped out of school, left everyone—until she found me.” He shoves me inside the house that seems almost done. The kitchen is big and open. Open concept all the way, as there’s a fireplace in the living room and it seems to extend into a reading nook. And why is my brain going full HGTV right now? I haven’t watched any shows since the summer I spent with my uncle and brother. It was either watching House Hunters or thinking about what I could have done differently. HGTV won out only some nights. And then I found the forums toward the end of the summer session, I’d be looking for Noah or for stories similar to mine. Stories to bring me hope. But often, I’d read a story that would bring me to tears instead. So many people missing. So many people lost. So many people having issues readjusting to life. “Up the stairs! Let’s go.” His hand tightens his grip on my arm, like he’s afraid I could flee. I take the stairs as slowly as possible. Maybe Hunter’s awake. Maybe he called the police and they’re on their way. Some of the doors aren’t installed yet but stand against the wall. He tugs me into a room on the side. Must be the master bedroom. There is a sitting alcove and then three more steps to a large room with an en-suite.

  There’s no bed, but a chair. He pushes me so that I sit. “I thought it’d be fitting for you to die the same way you were intended to.” He touches my face. The fear I’ve managed to keep somewhat buried bubbles up to the surface. “I find that poetic for you to die here.” His finger trails down my cheek. “I had
been waiting for such a long time for someone like you to appear in his life.”

  “Would she want you to kill me?” My voice quivers but I force myself to look him straight in the eyes, to appeal to his humanity. “Would she want you to do that? To possibly lose your life too? Because they’ll find you.”

  “They won’t. And if they do, it will be worth it. He needs to pay.” His eyes glaze over as if he’s fighting tears. He coughs and then turns away from me. “I’m going to go back and see him. I want to be with him when the fire engulfs you. He should be awake in twenty minutes or so...” He looks over his shoulder back at me and flashes me a smile as if he’s about to tell me something that he’s proud of. “I got everything figured out. I paid a kid who’s in need of a fix via the Internet, promising him the rest of the money later. If they find someone, that would be him. And he thinks he’s talking to Hunter.” He laughs again. “Once a hacker, always a hacker. Anyways, love, time for me to go enjoy the show.”

  He ties me to the chair.

  “Please,” I plead, and my voice sounds so broken. Terror slowly grips me. “Please, don’t do this.”

  But he simply checks my ties and without another word, leaves me alone.

  And the sound of his truck is gone within minutes.

  Maybe he was wrong. Maybe that kid is not going to do as he said. Maybe I can break free.

  But then I smell it. Gasoline. Someone is pouring gasoline somewhere close.

  No. Please, please, no.

  My legs shake. My pulse races. Black spots dance in front of my eyes.

  I’m going to get sick.

  I can’t do this. I can’t go through this.

  Not again.

  CHAPTER 37 – HUNTER

  By the time I come to, my head’s pounding. I squint. I can’t see Lacey anymore. My heart races. I’m no longer in the hotel. The floor is cold. Some place I’ve never been to. I turn to the side. And Branson’s here. Sitting on a chair. Watching me. His half-smile is part triumphant, part sadness. I need to hold on to that hint of sadness. Maybe that means he’s not totally gone. Maybe I can find a way to know where Lacey is.

  “What did you do with her?” My voice is hoarse.

  He glances at his watch. “There’s not much time left. Soon, you’ll be freed. I’ll call the cops, tell them where you are. But it will be too late for her.”

  My throat dries. And panic edges itself in my chest. But I can’t panic. Panic won’t help me.

  I need to get to him. I need him to share his story. Whatever to make him feel connected, to make him realize he can still turn back. I push on my feet that are no longer bound so that I can sit up against the bare wall.

  “Why did you wait until now?” It makes no fucking sense. I need to get to her. I need to help her. The police have to be on their way. When Lacey didn’t call Luke, he would have called the police. But where will they try to find her? They still believe it’s related to the cult.

  “I needed to find someone you felt the same way about...the way you love Lacey, that’s the way I loved Kiara.”

  He told me about Kiara. He got me in the underground parking of the hotel. When I saw him coming, I only thought it was weird for him to be there, but then he told me he had Lacey in the car and to follow him or she’d die. He had the gun on my back. Once in the car, he tied me up and drugged me. But not before he told me about Kiara. “If you loved her, why didn’t you help her? She was clean. The police said it looked like most of her scars were old, except the ones on her legs, which were new. She only used again with you.”

  “We needed to be close again. And we were close...”

  The way he’s looking away and choosing his words carefully, it clicks. “You gave her the drugs. The drugs that killed her.” He hadn’t told me that. Maybe he told Lacey. Where is Lacey? I need to get him to talk. I need to get him to let us go.

  “I was trying to get her to relax. Just a hit to relax. She said she didn’t want it. She said I should understand because I was clean too, but I’ve always been clean and when she was using, she needed me. Not this bullshit. She wanted forgiveness, but she didn’t want me. I knew if she didn’t take them, she’d leave me and I’d never see her again. You don’t get it.”

  “Kaira was strong. My cousin says it’s like choosing every single day to be clean. Sometimes, it’s a minute by minute choice. Drugs are like a disease and instead of vaccinating yourself to help her, you infected her.”

  “You’re wrong. I loved her. She was mine. Mine. Only mine. She belonged to me. We were meant for each other,” he repeats over and over again.

  And it clicks. “One of the therapists at your rehab...You muttered something in the car before I passed out. You said he was wrong, that you weren’t obsessed. He wasn’t talking about alcohol. He was talking about her. About Kaira. You were obsessed with her.”

  He paces around. “I wasn’t obsessed. That therapist was an idiot. I needed her. I needed to make sure she stayed with me, because I was the best for her.” He sounds angrier and angrier, and I need to change direction. I need to calm him down.

  I need to convince him I believe him. “You’re right. He was wrong. Clearly, you loved her and she loved you. That’s why she came to see you. Her death was an accident. A tragic accident and I’m sorry I wasn’t faster. I wish I could bring her back for you. She loved you so much.”

  “That’s not true.” He shakes his head and he punches the wall next to me. Some of the drywall crackles and white dust settles around me. “You’re a liar. You don’t think she loved me. You killed her.”

  “She was already dead when I found her. You know she was already dead when I found her!” Anger laces my words and I inhale deeply. Anger won’t solve shit. I need Lacey.

  He sniffles, his gun still pointed at me. “She wasn’t dead. Nope. Nope. She wasn’t dead. I didn’t give her too much. She knew...”

  “She was clean! When she used again, she didn’t know her limits anymore. She overdosed. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Not my fault. Not my fault. It’s not my fault! Kiara told me she wanted me to move on. She said she came down to apologize for pulling me down with her. She said she needed to apologize so that she could move on.” He stares at me with tears in his eyes. “She didn’t love me anymore. She wasn’t like before. She didn’t want to use, but I knew everything about her, all of secrets. Secrets she may not have wanted the world to know. How she stole from everyone she ever loved, how she did everything so that she couldn’t feel pain anymore. I convinced her to do it just once more for the road, that after that I’d leave her alone and she could rebuild her new life”

  I don’t understand everything he’s saying but I’m starting to put the pieces together. He was obsessed with her and his addiction to her was deadly. But she hadn’t realized that. “She came down because she felt responsible for you being arrested and getting moved down here. That’s what you told me in the car. Your parents forced you to leave Massachusetts.”

  “I wanted to be with her forever. I was going to find her again. I had a plan. We had a plan. But she got clean and said we weren’t good for one another!” He yells not bothering to wipe the tears falling on his cheeks. “I was saving money for her, for us and she said money couldn’t fix what we had and that we both needed to move on.” His voice rises with each word and I feel like I’m losing him to his rage, to his desire of revenge. “She said she’d never forget me. I didn’t want her to forget me. She lied. She was going to forget me.” The gun goes limp for a second. And that’s my chance. I lunge toward him, head first. The gun jumps out of his hand. He doesn’t even look for it. He punches me in the stomach. “You don’t get it. Lacey needs to die. You need to feel how I feel.”

  “You killed Kiara, didn’t you?” The way he’s been talking about what happened, I’m not sure the overdose was accidental.

  I’m not sure how it happened but the restraints against my wrists are looser. I wiggle my hands and they come undone. I don’t have
much time. He’s lost in his thoughts. I jump on him. He shakes me away more easily than I thought. I’m still groggy from whatever he gave me.

  He gets me into a hold that reminds me that he said he did wrestling in high school. “We had our entire lives ahead of us. I thought she came to tell me we could be back together. You should have seen us when we were seventeen—always together. Her life wasn’t easy but I made it easier.” I’m stronger than him though. I escape his hold and pin him against the wall with one arm at his neck. My fingers grab his car keys.

  “You didn’t make shit easier for her.”

  “I tried though.” His tears seem real. Maybe the way for him to deal with the truth was to tell himself I was responsible. For two years, he’s been holding back. Did his parents recognize the picture? Or did they even know this happened? After all, he moved here by himself.

  But right now none of this matters.

  None of this will matter if I don’t find Lacey. “Where is she?”

  “You won’t make it on time. We’re on her old compound but we’re on the other end of what will become a very sought-after neighborhood.” He forces his voice to sound more nasally. “The place everyone wants to live. Great school district, great community.”

  “Where is she?” I yell.

  He smirks. “They’re trying to make a high-end neighborhood out of the shithole that almost killed her not too long ago.” He tilts his head and his smirk turns into a full grin, as if he’s truly happy. Chills sprint down my spine. “This time it’s going to work. The more I talk, the more time the fire’s had to do its job. They were building new houses there but there was an issue with a permit or some shit so they stopped for now.”